The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, Public Law 109-129, includes the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program (Program). The Program was authorized to help more patients have a successful bone marrow or cord blood transplant. The Bone Marrow Coordinating Center is one of four components of the Program.
A bone marrow or cord blood transplant (also called a BMT) can be used to treat patients who have a life-threatening blood cancer or metabolic or immune system disorder. A bone marrow or cord blood transplant replaces a patient's diseased cells with healthy blood-forming cells so a patient can live a longer, healthier life.
According to the contract, the Bone Marrow Coordinating Center will:
- Recruit more marrow donors, especially those of racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. This includes making sure that the number of potential donors who are of specific races and ethnicities is large enough to meet the needs of patients who need a transplant.
- Coordinate a network of national and international centers that work together to provide safe bone marrow transplants. This includes defining standards, ensuring these standards are followed by centers and helping centers improve their performance.
Organizations in the network include:
- Donor centers and recruitment organizations for raising awareness and recruiting potential marrow donors.
- Cooperative registries (which are registries in other countries having agreements with the Bone Marrow Coordinating Center) for identifying marrow donors and cord blood units located outside of the United States.
- Laboratories for identifying tissue types and infectious diseases and tissue repositories for storing the tissue samples.
- Collection centers (or hospitals) for bone marrow donation and apheresis centers for peripheral blood stem cell donation.
- Transplant centers (which are hospitals with an experienced transplant team) for taking care of patients who receive a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.
- Provide an efficient system for collecting samples and identifying and matching tissue types through one electronic system (Single Point of Access). This includes:
- Collecting and identifying tissue types of donors and patients.
- Maintaining a national Registry so that a potential marrow donor who matches a patient’s tissue type can be found quickly.
- Providing more tissue type testing and medical evaluations of potential marrow donors to ensure the safety of donors and patients.
- Work closely with the Office of Patient Advocacy to provide educational information for patients, the public, and medical professionals and to help patients throughout the transplant process. This includes:
- Allowing patients and doctors to electronically explore the possibility of finding a marrow donor or cord blood unit.
- Searching worldwide for all sources of cells through one electronic system.
- Providing updates of the search progress to patients, doctors and health care professionals at transplant centers.
- Ensure outcomes data is collected and provided for research to improve the availability, efficiency and safety of transplants from unrelated donors as well as reduce costs.
- Protect patient and donor confidentiality throughout the search and transplant process as well as when providing outcomes and research data.
- Plan for public health emergencies requiring bone marrow transplants.
